GPS based participant identification system and method

ABSTRACT

A system and method for identifying a person in a geographic area of interest, who shares the identity of friendly participants with a user if certain criteria are met. In one form, the identity of a participant in the area and meeting certain criteria is displayed to a user or other friendly participants. The identity is displayed to friendly participants on, for example, a GPS-equipped cell phone or head-mounted glasses. Other information can be shared among friendly participants, including social information, photographs, gender, status, and location.

PRIORITY CLAIM

The present application is a continuation from U.S. application Ser. No.13/423,423 which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/146,907 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,207,843) which is a continuation-in-partof U.S. application Ser. No. 12/111,688 which is a continuation-in-partof U.S. application Ser. No. 11/875,414 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,249,626)which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/624,998(now U.S. Pat. No. 8,275,397) which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.application Ser. No. 11/456,715 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,855,638) and Ser.No. 11/456,723 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,518,501), which both claim priorityto U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/699,205 filed Jul. 14, 2005.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to locater systems and methods, inparticular, to an individual system and method which depicts otherpeople and objects. In a preferred form, the user can change thedepiction including viewing and identifying friends or people withcommon interests from a number of angles, locations, and magnitudes.

2. Description of Related Art

GPS systems have been used in sports by participants in contests whereposition, location and distance to features are important. For example,U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,093 describes a GPS system and method for allowing agolfer to tell distance to a hole or other feature, and permits thecourse to track and manage golfers on the course. NASCAR with Sportslinehas developed a GPS system mounted to cars for TV viewers to monitor arace.

GPS Systems have been used in a threat environment by the military in avariety of applications such as navigation aids and guidance systems forordnance. GPS Systems have also been used for training scenarios. Inboth the military and civilian social networking applications, GPSSystems have been used for tracking people or objects.

GPS systems are becoming much more accurate, inexpensive and robust. GPSantennas and engines are fairly inexpensive and accurate with WAAS toless than 2 meters. Accuracy is improving, especially with the increasein the number of advanced satellites and frequencies available. In alocal area, the accuracy can be improved to centimeters, depending onthe accuracy required, latency constraints, processing and bandwidthavailable, etc. Further, communication links are becoming veryinexpensive and high bandwidth. For example, WiFi (802.11g) has modemswith network signals approaching a 1 mile range, cost less than $5, withbandwidth of 54M bit/sec. Wi-max (802.16) has network signalsapproaching 30 miles with data rates as high as 70M bit/sec, but is morerelevant to fixed installations Future versions of WiFi or other radiotechnology might be less than $1 with 10-100× bandwidths within a fewyears (as used herein WiFi refers to current and future versions ofwireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11specifications).

What has not been done in the sports arena is an integrated GPS systemfor spectators to more fully enjoy a sport. For example, at a NASCARrace, a spectator's location limits his view of the race and is his ownunique perspective. While watching a race, the spectator might listen toa radio or watch a portable TV, but the perspective is the announcer'sor TV angle. Such divergent perspectives—announcer versus personal—canbe confusing. Further, a 3^(rd) turn spectator might be most interestedin the cars he can see—the ones near the 3^(rd) turn. Other sports wouldbenefit from a system that allows a spectator to more fully integratethe contest information with his viewing perspective. In addition toauto racing, football, yachting, horse racing, golf, hockey or any motorsport are candidates for the system and method hereof, especially assize and weight of GPS and radios accompanying a participant decreases.

What is lacking in personal networking applications, including socialand business situations, is an integrated GPS system for an individualuser to gain situational awareness and to easily identify friends orothers of interest. That is, while a personal networking participantmight possess a GPS enabled cell phone that transmits his position, thisinformation does the individual little good. Such a personal networkingparticipant might have an overhead view of a map showing the position ofother friends in the general vicinity, but leaves it up to theparticipant to find and identify them.

A particular problem in the area of personal networking is identifying aperson of interest in a confusing environment, such as a crowd. Forexample, a cell phone having a GPS might be enabled to identify that afriend is near, but the user cannot locate the friend because of thecrowd or environment, e.g. a crowded street or concert. Users also havedifficulty relating how a small mark identifying a friend on a mapcorrelates to their position or their view of the situation.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,744,403 describes a GPS system for tracking objects,such as cars, at a sporting event. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,090.High data rate packet transmission is known, such as U.S. Pat. Nos.6,894,994; 6,909,738; 6,885,652; 6,917,644; 6,801,516. Examples of userinterfaces, such as PDA's, cell phones, headsets, and the like are U.S.Pat. Nos. 7,053,780; 6,879,443; and 6,115,177. Examples of socialnetworking devices and applications using GPS include: U.S. Pat. Nos.7,039,435; 7,035,647; 6,912,398; 7,136,747; and U.S. Pub. Nos.2006/0154687; 2004/0203595; 2006/0242234; and 2003/0236120. Allreferences cited herein are incorporated by reference.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention contemplates a GPS system that providessituational information and identifies people or objects relevant to auser's perspective or location and preferably is selectable to view thesituation from another location. Preferably, the participants in a groupare GPS equipped and communicate their GPS position (and other sensor orstatus information) with a server at a central location. For example, acircle or group of friends might be identified and each participant inthe group accompanied by a GPS enabled cell phone. The cell phonespreferably communicate locations through the cellular network to otherauthorized participants or unknown users meeting defined criteria. Theuser has a portable viewing device that accepts the user's position andselectively renders a view of the situation, other group participants,and optionally unknowns meeting defined criteria (and/or otherinformation) from the user's perspective or location or selectively fromanother location. That is, the user can selectively view and identifyother group participants and unknowns users meeting defined criteriafrom different locations, views, and magnification. Even remote userscan use a device with a network information feed to identify groupparticipants.

As an analogy, in a NASCAR race, the cars are all equipped with a GPSengine and a communication link to a central server. Each spectator hasa portable device that has a GPS engine, as well as a communication linkto the central server. The portable device logs in with the centralserver, optionally authenticating and telling the server the spectator'slocation at the track. During the race, the positions of the cars arebroadcast to the spectators. In one mode, the portable device displaysinformation most relevant to the spectator's location. For example, theposition and vital information of the cars nearest the spectator. Inanother mode, the portable device has the processing power to take thepositions of the cars and the location of the spectator and render adepiction of the cars in real time on the track. The spectator canselect the view. For example, the spectator might select “finish line,”“overhead,” “car 3 driver's view,” or “my view.”

A spectator at the 3^(rd) turn with “my view” selected can see theperspective of the rendering on the portable device to match his ownvisual observation—i.e. his location including elevation. This adds to amuch greater enjoyment of the situation because visual data is added tothe display which matches his visual observation. Importantly, thespectator can not only switch views, but can also tilt or pan theperspective or observation point or zoom. That is, from “my view” thespectator might rotate a toggle up incrementally up (or down) from thehorizontal view from the spectator's location of the car positions to avertical view of the situation. Preferably, the toggle would also allowleft/right pan functions at any time.

Similarly, in a personal networking situation, the user and eachfriendly participant within a group has a portable device that has a GPSengine (e.g. GPS equipped cell phones), as well as a communication linkto the central server. The portable device logs in with the centralserver, optionally authenticating and telling the server the user'slocation. The group can be determined ahead of time, or can be dynamicaccording to predetermined criteria. In a simple form, a user can simplyidentify a circle of friends as participants in the group (sometimesreferred to as “friendlies” herein). During the networking situation,the positions of the user and friendly participants, as well as theestimated positions of the unknowns are communicated to the user. In onemode, the portable device displays information most relevant to theuser's location. For example, the position and vital information of thefriendlies nearest the user can be displayed and the positions and anyother information on the unknowns within a certain range of the user canbe displayed. In another mode, the portable device has the processingpower to take the positions of the friendlies and unknowns and thelocation of the user and render a depiction and identification of theparticipants in real time. The user can select the view. For example,the user might select “meeting spot view,” “overhead map view,”“friendly #3 view,” or “my view.”

In addition to the view of the unknowns meeting certain criteria orfriendlies the user can selectively view appended important information.For example, in one mode the user might select no information, in asecond mode, the user might select unknown identification only, while inanother mode, the user might select identification plus movement ofunknowns, plus “social information” of one or more selected friendliesor unknowns. Such “social information” might be destination, cashavailable, time available, meeting or introduction desires, partnerstatus, group, culture or music affinity, etc. Preferably, the usercould go from a view mode to other modes, such as a display of thecurrent information of the friendlies and/or unknowns in tabular form, aview from a particular location (an image or streaming video), remotesensor video or other sensor data, etc. Preferably, the portable devicewould include a radio (any type of communication link such as GPRS orWi-Fi) to relay audio or data for monitoring friendly to friendlycommunications or radio broadcasts (e.g. group “walkie talkie”functions). In a preferred form, the portable device is a GPS equippedcell phone and can be used to communicate with a central server (e.g.,command center) and other devices, for example, text commands.

Unknowns meeting certain criteria might be selectively displayed. Forexample, the criteria could be based on the social information, e.g.displaying all unknowns meeting criteria “white male seeking Tolstoyloving cowgirl.” A user can optionally elect whether the user wants tobe included as an unknown for other people having such devices and underwhat circumstances the user will be depicted as an unknown with certaininterests. That is, a user can elect to not participate, participateonly with selected friends or publish widely selected criteria to allparticipants. For example, the published criteria might be“destination—Stones Concert” or “seeking male Tango partners for ClubCrud.”

In “my view,” for example, the portable device might selectively displayonly information to the user for unknowns or friendlies within a certainrange. Alternatively, the user might want to follow a particularfriendly or unknown continuously, e.g. follow friend named Jill, withselectable views (overheard, zoom, head). In any of these modes, theuser could zoom, pan or tilt as described above, freeze, slow motion,replay, etc.

While the preferred embodiment is described in the context of a socialnetworking situation such as that shown in FIGS. 8-10, it is easily seenhow the system and method of the present invention is applicable to awide variety of personal networking situations, such as tracking orfinding children in a crowd or meeting a businessman for lunch. Forexample, a logistics function (in a crowd) might use the portable devicewhile accompanying a group on a trip. Information on the position ofunknowns or friendlies can be supplied from a variety of sources—such asoptical or infrared triangulation from a number of users to acquire theposition data. Once the position information of each participant(unknown or friendly) is gathered or approximated, the information isdistributed to the user based on the user's and participant's desires.As may be surmised from the NASCAR analogy above, the user mightdetermine the angle or view of the graphic rendering, the tilt, pan orzoom of the graphic depiction, the format of the presentation, i.e.graphic of the region of action or a tabular summary of all participantsor one participant, statistics for another user, etc.

A prime advantage of the applicability of the present invention topersonal networking situations is the ability to determine the positionof and identify all participants. For example, with current E911technology a cell phone can be fitted with a GPS device and is accuratewithin 50 meters permitting users to only know a friend is in thevicinity. The present invention contemplates a portable device accuratewith WAAS and with location solving algorithms to less than 5 meters andwith processing at a central server to sub-meter accuracy even in urbancanyons or indoors. While the preferred embodiment contemplatesobtaining participant location information via GPS, other types oflocation determination sensors are possible, such as proximity sensors,radar or radio triangulation.

While the portable device of the preferred embodiment is a cell phonewith GPS, other types of gaming devices, PDA, and personal devices withradio (GPRS or Wi-Fi) may equally be used and adapted to personalnetworking situations. Further, although the preferred embodimentcontemplates broadcasting participant location information to authorizedusers and graphics rendering performed on the handheld devices, therendering load of the data might be distributed. I.e. some of thegraphics pipeline for the rendering could be accomplished at the serverbefore transmission. However, rendering technology is rapidly advancingand becoming increasingly realistic with advances in game technology andas the processing power of the portable device increases and therendering technology develops, it is anticipated that most of thegraphics rendering can be performed at the portable device.

One embodiment of the present invention contemplates a GPS system thatprovides contest, situation, race or event information relevant to theviewer's perspective or location or is selectable to view the contest,situation, race or event from another location. Preferably, theparticipants are GPS equipped and communicate their GPS position (andother sensor information) with a server.

One embodiment of the present invention relates generally to a spectatorsystem and method that displays different views of the contest,situation, race or event at a venue. One of the views can be from aparticipant's location. The views can be a composite of imagery, virtual(rendered), or augmented reality over a background. The views can be 2Dor 3D, and from almost any viewing angle or perspective as describedherein. The term “background” is used to denote a realistic perspectiveview which can be generated as a photo image with or without augmentedreality, a rendered graphic image with augmented reality, a graphicimage outline, or combinations thereof.

A preferred method for observing the contest, situation, race or eventcomprises: determining a position of one or more participants at thevenue of the contest, situation, race or event and viewing the contest,situation, race or event from the position of the participant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the network;

FIG. 2 is a depiction of the portable device of a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a perspective of an alternative embodiment of the portabledevice, resembling a PDA or a cell phone;

FIG. 4 is a perspective of a portable device where the functionality isbuilt into glasses or goggles worn by the user;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the glasses of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the glasses of FIG. 4 from the other side;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the functionality of the glasses of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a diagram of a screen short from the portable device showingan overhead view of all participants, friendlies and unknowns, in aregion of interest;

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a screen shot from the portable device showing anenlarged, overhead view of a particular set of participants from FIG. 8;and

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a screen shot from the portable device showingthe participants of FIG. 9, but from a lateral view and depictinginformation on the nearest friends.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In FIG. 1, a depiction of the network 40 is shown. The friendlies 10communicate with a radio base station 42 preferably using a cell phonenetwork although other radios could be used (encrypted or secured ifdesired). The server 44 stores the position data of each friendly 10communicated to the base station 42, and other pertinent data such associal information, etc. Ideally, the server 44 can also digitally storethe voice communications of interest and images of various scenes ofpossible interest, i.e., other friendlies. Of course, the server 44 canstore direction and messages as well for delivery to friendlies 10. Theserver 44 can also be used for authentication of portable devices 20 andenable selectable requests from friendlies (i.e. social informationrequests).

In some applications, the participants might broadcast locationinformation directly to other friendlies, i.e. without an interveningserver e.g. Wi-Fi if so equipped. The radio 46 is used to communicate ona broadcast or relay basis to other social networking participants48—here using a GSM tri-band or Wi-Fi, the GPS position information ofthe friendlies 10 or requests (encrypted or secured if desired). Thedevices 20 in the hands of the other social networking participants 48processes the position information to render the views illustrated forexample in FIGS. 8-10. In FIG. 1, unknowns meeting a first criteria aredepicted as 61, while unknowns meeting a second criteria are identifiedas 62. The first criteria might be all those whose destination is theUT/Oklahoma football game while the second criteria is all red-headedfemales taller than 5′6″. Such criteria can be arbitrary and encompasspractically any attribute of the user or social information.

In the preferred embodiment, friendly participants will carry a GPSenabled cell phone device 20 which permits tracking of many, if not all,of the friendlies. Unknowns will typically be detected and tracked usingGPS enabled cell phones as well. Each participant will preferablydetermine their level of participation, both what information they wantto publish and receive. For example, a participant might choose topublish and receive location information only confined to apredetermined group of friends or an individual. A participant mightchoose to publish location information and personal social data to allusers within a geographic area or to those of a particular group (e.g.group defined as “destination—Stones concert.”) A participant mightchoose to receive location and data from any participants within adefined group and publish information to the network only to those“seeking dance partners.” The combinations are manifold based onidentity and social information.

A number of different sensors and technologies can be used for trackingor augmenting the GPS information. This might be particularly usefulindoors or in urban canyons. For example, Wi-Fi (which includes Wi-Max)and Ultrawide band based timing can be used for tracking locations.Additionally, ElectroOptical/Infrared (EO/IR) and radar surveillancesensor technologies and systems have been deployed for detection,classification, and tracking of personnel, vehicles, objects andmaterials such as explosives, drugs, and contraband hidden on persons,and in baggage, vehicles, and shipping containers, using EO/IR and Radartechnologies and systems. Such systems include passive and activevisible and infrared imagers, passive and active millimeter wave imagers(i.e. holographic radar, real aperture radar, synthetic aperture radar),acoustic imagers and x-ray imagers related technologies (i.e., activeradar, ESM bi-static radar, etc.), infrared and low-light systems, andalgorithms to process individual and multiple sensor data. The followingpatents relate to different types of sensors and technologies fordetection, classification, and tracking of personnel. U.S. Pat. Nos.7,046,187; 6,987,560; 6,922,145; 6,856,272; 6,754,368; 6,437,727; and6,061,014 (herein incorporated by reference). In one mode, thefriendlies can mark unknown or foes (signed by EO, optical, or acoustic)which gives an angle to the server 44. From a number of angles theserver can compute approximate location by triangulation.

While the preferred embodiment contemplates most processing occurring atdevice 20, different amounts of preprocessing of the position data canbe processed at the server 44. For example, the participant informationcan be differentially corrected at the server (using e.g. either WAAS ora local area differential correction) or even information post-processedwith carrier phase differential to achieve centimeter accuracy. Further,it is anticipated that most of the graphics rendering can beaccomplished at the portable device 20, but an engineering choice wouldbe to pre-processes some of the location and rendering information atthe server 44 prior to broadcast. The information sent to a portabledevice 20 might include any of the social information and in addition,photographs and personal information and attributes linked from othersocial networking data repositories.

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of one form of a portable device 20 carriedby the spectators. The depiction is of a gaming device manufactured andsold by Gizmondo, Inc., but other such devices having similarfunctionality can be substituted. The device 20 includes an LCD screen22, and an 8 way directional pad 24. Face buttons 26 are near thescreen, while triggers 28 are on top of the device 20 as shown.Functional buttons 30 and speaker 32 complete the functional items inthe view of FIG. 2. Not shown is the SD card slot, USB or power ports,or a camera. The Gizmondo was powered by a 400 MHz ARM9 processor andhas a 2.8 inch 320×240 pixels TFT screen and an NVIDIA 128 bit GeForce3D 4500 GPU featuring a programmable pixel shader, hardware transformengine, and 1280 KB of embedded memory.

While the device 20 of FIG. 2 uses an ARM 9 processor and Sirf GPSchipset, substitutions can be readily made (e.g. uBlox GPS chipset). Thepreferred primary communications radio is GPS tri-band for GPRS butother communication links are easily used. GPRS is a connectivitysolution based on Internet Protocols that supports a wide range ofenterprise and consumer applications. With throughput rates of up to 40kbit/s, users have a similar access speed to a dial-up modem, but withthe convenience of being able to connect from anywhere. A WiFicommunications link can alternatively be used, and encrypted if desired,e.g. using Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP. Sony, Nintendo, andPlaystation all make or intend to make premium game consoles withembedded WiFi. Of course, WiFi outdoors has range issues (although thiscan be several kilometers with improved antennas and line of sight,particularly at the older 900 MHz bandwidths) and power issues whichmight make WiFi unsuitable for some applications, although the Wi Maxversion of WiFi may solve many of these problems.

FIG. 3 depicts a preferred form of the portable device 120 carried bythe users—namely a cell phone. The portable device 120 of FIG. 3includes a GPS/antenna 134, communications antenna and radio 136, adisplay 122, and a directional pad 124. Other alternatives for aportable device are possible. For example, the portable device 220 ofFIG. 4 is in the configuration of glasses or goggles and includes a GPSand patch antenna 232, microprocessor 234, radio 236. Controls, such asthe directional pad 224, are on the side frames (opposite side shown inFIG. 6). Batteries are stored in compartment 242. The displays aretransparent LCD's as at 244 and, in particular, are LCD's left 246 andright 248 illustrated in FIG. 7. Examples of such a device are the MyVueheadset made by MicroOptical Corp. of Westwood, Mass. (see, U.S. Pat.No. 6,879,443). In addition to the Gizmondo type device of FIG. 2, inthe near term gaming consoles with GPS and a radio are the bestalternatives, such as made by Sony PSP or N Gage OD. However, PDA andcell phone form factors will be viable long term as portable devices,such as Mio A701, HP iPaQ, and Siemens.

In a particularly preferred form, the cell phone 120 of FIG. 3 mayinclude Bluetooth communication capability. The user would wear glassessimilar to those depicted in FIG. 4 with Bluetooth capability. In thismanner, the glasses would be simple devices for displaying the desiredinformation received from the cell phone 120. That is, the cell phone120 provides the location and computational capability with the glassessimply providing an additional augmented reality capability to cue to afriendly or unknown.

As used herein, GPS is meant to include all of the current and futurepositioning systems that include satellites, such as the U.S. Navistar,GLONASS, Galileo, EGNOS, WAAS, MSAS, etc. The accuracy of the positions,particularly of the participants, can be improved using knowntechniques, often called differential techniques, such as WAAS (widearea), LAAS (local area), Carrier-Phase Enhancement (CPGPS), Wide AreaGPS Enhancement (WAGE), or Relative Kinematic Positioning (RKP). Ofcourse, the positional degree of accuracy is driven by the requirementsof the application. In the NASCAR example, two meter accuracy providedby WAAS would probably be acceptable. In personal networking ascontemplated herein, 5 meter accuracy is believed sufficient in mostsituations and can be achieved through combinations of antenna andreceiver design, differential correction using WAAS or LAAS orprocessing corrections at the central server. For example if the antennaand receiver design of the GPS enabled cell phone yields 15 meteraccuracy, WAAS correction might bring the accuracy to 5 meters andprocessing at the server might yield additional improvements to 2meters. Such central server corrections can be applied in near real timeusing local area corrections using standard techniques such as vectorcorrections or pseudo-range corrections.

Discussing FIGS. 8-10 in conjunction, FIG. 8 depicts friendlies 10/11,unknowns 61 and 62, and user 19 operating in an area of interest 12. InFIG. 9, the user 19 is at the base of a ridge and FIG. 10 is a renderingfrom the perspective of user 19. In FIG. 9, the user 19 has tiltedupwardly his view so that he has an oblique angle view of friends 10 ofFIG. 8. FIG. 8 is of a view of the same area 12 at the same moment intime as FIGS. 9-10, but the view is “zoomed” outwardly changing thescale and allowing to see more of the participants in area 12. FIG. 10shows an augmented reality view where even if friends 10 cannot be seenvisually (e.g., night, weather, crowds, terrain, distance, buildings,etc), their location is depicted. Range, ID, and other cuing informationis also depicted in FIG. 10. While the display of area 12 in FIGS. 8-10is in real time, the user 19 could alternatively obtain from the servera “SimulCam” using technology such as available from Dartfish where eachunknown or foe is superimposed at a certain time into a time progressionover a previous position to show movement.

Graphics

The graphics generated on the screen 22 can be 2D graphics, such asgeometric models (also called vector graphics) or digital images (alsocalled raster graphics). In 2D graphics, these components can bemodified and manipulated by two-dimensional geometric transformationssuch as translation, rotation, scaling. In object oriented graphics, theimage is described indirectly by an object endowed with a self-renderingmethod—a procedure which assigns colors to the image pixels by anarbitrary algorithm. Complex models can be built by combining simplerobjects, in the paradigms of object-oriented programming. Moderncomputer graphics card displays almost overwhelmingly use rastertechniques, dividing the screen into a rectangular grid of pixels, dueto the relatively low cost of raster-based video hardware as comparedwith vector graphic hardware. Most graphic hardware has internal supportfor blitting operations and sprite drawing.

Preferably, however, the graphics generated on screen 22 are 3D. OpenGLand Direct3D are two popular APIs for the generation of real-timeimagery in 3D. (Real-time means that image generation occurs in “realtime,” or “on the fly”) Many modern graphics cards provide some degreeof hardware acceleration based on these APIs, frequently enabling thedisplay of complex 3D graphics in real-time. However, it's not necessaryto employ any one of these to actually create 3D imagery. The graphicspipeline is advancing dramatically, mainly driven by gamingapplications.

3D graphics have become so popular, particularly in computer games, thatspecialized APIs (application programmer interfaces) have been createdto ease the processes in all stages of computer graphics generation.These APIs have also proved vital to computer graphics hardwaremanufacturers, as they provide a way for programmers to access thehardware in an abstract way, while still taking advantage of the specialhardware of this-or-that graphics card.

These APIs for 3D computer graphics are particularly popular:

-   -   OpenGL and the OpenGL Shading Language    -   OpenGL ES 3D API for embedded devices    -   Direct3D (a subset of DirectX)    -   RenderMan    -   RenderWare    -   Glide API    -   TruDimension LC Glasses and 3D monitor API

There are also higher-level 3D scene-graph APIs which provide additionalfunctionality on top of the lower-level rendering API. Such librariesunder active development include:

-   -   QSDK    -   Quesa    -   Java 3D    -   JSR 184 (M3G)    -   NVidia Scene Graph    -   OpenSceneGraph    -   OpenSG    -   OGRE    -   Irrlicht    -   Hoops3D

Photo-realistic image quality is often the desired outcome and, to thisend, several different and often specialized rendering methods have beendeveloped. These methods range from the distinctly non-realisticwireframe rendering through polygon-based rendering, to more advancedtechniques such as scanline rendering, ray tracing, or radiosity. Therendering process is computationally expensive, given the complexvariety of physical processes being simulated. Computer processing powerhas increased rapidly over the years, allowing for a progressivelyhigher degree of realistic rendering. Film studios that producecomputer-generated animations typically make use of a render farm togenerate images in a timely manner. However, falling hardware costs meanthat it is entirely possible to create small amounts of 3D animation ona small processor, such as in the device 20.

While full 3D rendering is not possible with the device 20 describedherein, advances in processing and rendering capability will enablegreater use of 3D graphics in the future. In 3D computer graphics, theterms graphics pipeline or rendering pipeline most commonly refer to thecurrent state of the art method of rasterization-based rendering assupported by commodity graphics hardware. The graphics pipelinetypically accepts some representation of a 3D scene as an input andresults in a 2D raster image as output.

Requests

Special requests from user 19 or friendlies 10/11 can be made to theserver 44, such as for images of a particular scene or audio of aparticular friendly 10/11, social status, support requests, etc. Thisfunction is shown as at 50, 52 in FIG. 1.

While the preferred embodiment has been described in the context of auser in physical proximity to other group participants, the use of theportable devices 20 at remote locations is equally feasible and indeedthe device 20 need not be portable in alternative embodiments. Forexample, the device 20 can be a TV set top box while watching an eventon TV. Further, the device could be a networked computer watchingstreaming video with the participant location and other informationstreaming over a communication link (e.g. the internet).

What is claimed:
 1. A method for communicating an image from a mobileparticipant at a venue for a contest, situation, race or event tomultiple users, comprising: wirelessly communicating a participantlocation to a server; wirelessly communicating a desired level of userparticipation for multiple users to said server, including a userreceiving criteria for receiving information from said participant;wirelessly communicating a desired level of participant participation tosaid server, including a participant publishing criteria for publishingsaid participant's information to said user; determining saidparticipant location is proximate said venue; determining if saidparticipant publishing criteria meets a user receiving criteria,wirelessly communicating information comprising an image from saidparticipant proximate said venue during said contest, situation, race orevent to multiple users; and displaying said participant image to saidmultiple users.
 2. The method of claim 1, identifying said participantif said participant consents.
 3. The method of claim 1, includingwirelessly communicating said image and participant social informationfrom a social network associated with said server to said one or moreusers.
 4. The method of claim 1, said publishing and receiving criteriacomprising social information.
 5. The method of claim 1, at least one ofsaid publishing and receiving criteria comprising social information andincluding one or more of destination, cash available, time available,meeting desires, introduction desires, partner status, gender, race,interest, group affinity, culture affinity, music affinity, or aphysical attribute.
 6. The method of claim 1, including communicatingparticipant location information to a user portable device if saidparticipant publishing criteria meets a user receiving criteria.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, said participant location information comprising adestination.
 8. The method of claim 6, said participant locationinformation comprising a maximum range from said user.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, said display on a user device comprising a plan view of saidgeographic area of interest and said participant location is displayed.10. The method of claim 1, said image on a user device comprising aperspective view of a portion of said venue and includes saidparticipant and augmented reality information.
 11. The method of claim1, including communicating participant social information to multipleusers, said social information including one or more of destination,cash available, time available, meeting desires, introduction desires,partner status, gender, race, interest, group affinity, cultureaffinity, music affinity, or a physical attribute.
 12. The method ofclaim 1, said venue including a geographic area of interest comprising acertain range from said participant location stored on said server. 13.The method of claim 1, said server comprising a social network and saidreceiving criteria comprises a circle of friends of said user identifiedon said social network.
 14. The method of claim 1, including displayingon multiple user devices at least some of said participant socialinformation.
 15. The method of claim 1, including wirelessly accessingsaid image and social information associated with said participant andcommunicating said image and social information to multiple userdevices.
 16. The method of claim 1, including accessing a photographassociated with said user from a social network on said server andcommunicating said user photograph to said participant.
 17. A system forviewing an image from a mobile participant at a venue for a contest,situation, race or event, comprising: a social network server; a userdevice, operable to communicate with said social network server, andfurther operable to input a criteria for receiving a participantinformation; a portable device, accompanying said participant, having aGPS module for determining location, operable to communicate with saidsocial network server, a camera operable to generate an image andfurther operable to input a criteria for publishing participantinformation; said social network server being operable to record saidparticipant location proximate said venue for the contest, situation,race or event during the contest, situation, race or event; and saidsocial network server being operable to communicate said participantinformation including a participant generated image proximate the venueduring the time of the contest, situation, race or event to multipleuser devices, said social network server being operable to determine ifat least said participant publishing criteria meets said user receivingcriteria, and each user device being operable to display saidparticipant generate image proximate the venue during the time of thecontest, situation, race or event on said user devices.
 18. The systemof claim 17, wherein said participant publishing criteria and userreceiving criteria each include gender and sexual orientation.
 19. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein said social network server is operable tocommunicate participant GPS location if at least said user and saidparticipant are within a certain range and said participant publishingcriteria meets said user receiving criteria.
 20. The system of claim 17,said portable device being operable to add augmented reality informationto said participant generated image.
 21. The system of claim 17, atleast one of said publishing and receiving criteria comprising socialinformation.
 22. The system of claim 17, at least one of said publishingand receiving criteria comprising social information and including oneor more of destination, cash available, time available, meeting desires,introduction desires, partner status, gender, race, interest, groupaffinity, culture affinity, music affinity, or a physical attribute. 23.The system of claim 17, said image comprising a video of at least aportion of said contest, situation, race or event.